Nikki Reed opens up about the years of health struggles that led her deep into the world of wellness.
The 37-year-old actress, who now co-runs her own wellness brand, The absorption companywith her husband Ian Somerhalder, revealed on The Squeeze podcast that she battled a mysterious medical condition for years.
In her search for answers, she turned to wellness products as doctors struggled to identify what was wrong, but Reed said many of the remedies she was sold simply didn’t work.
Calling out what she considers predatory practices, she told host Taylor Lautner while appearing on the latest episode of her podcast that the industry is “capitalizing on people’s hope.”
“The placebo effect is real, but it doesn’t work for me,” he began, referring to the phenomenon in which a person feels better with a treatment without any active therapeutic benefit.
Additionally, Reed explained that during his “crazy health scare,” he consulted top medical experts, researched obsessively, and still came up empty-handed.
“As you can imagine, I’ve been seeing great doctors because I’m an information seeker. I’m looking for the best doctors I can and I really do my research for years and years,” Reed said.
Despite her efforts, she added, “I couldn’t figure this out and it was driving me crazy, but what was driving me equally crazy was how many things they were selling me that didn’t work.”
He didn’t hold back in his criticism of the burgeoning supplement and wellness market.
“Not only do they not work, but this is an industry that is capitalizing on people’s hope because they expect it to work,” Reed said.
“They’re taking these things and they’re spending their hard-earned money on the massive belief that they’re going to get better because of an industry that’s taking advantage of them,” he concluded.
